The move is said to be the first in the many initiatives mooted to make commuting easy and comfortable for citizens and is also in line with the BMTC efforts to woo more and more people in using the public transport.

Claimed to be the first bus service launch for Google Transit in India, the service and will benefit more than 4.2 million commuters who use the buses daily and is an addition to the many firsts that BMTC has to its credit. Just like Google Maps, the service will be available for free and users will be able to access it on desktops as well as their mobile phones.

BMTC Managing Director Syed Zameer Pasha said: “We believe that this initiative will be useful for people who use BMTC buses for their travel. We are the first bus service to provide this kind of service on Google Maps to its commuters.”

Similarly, Google India Head of Maps and Local Products Manik Gupta said: “Google Transit’s goal is to make public transport information easily accessible and useful, and we are delighted to extend our Transit offering to include buses.”

How it works

As Google Transit, commuters using BMTC services will be able to receive information in the following way:

- The user searches for information to reach from Place A to B on Google Maps
- The result shows a map with the possible route and driving directions for the commuter
- By choosing the transit option, commuters would get first hand information on Bangalore’s BMTC routes and schedules (For Vajra, Vayu Vajra and Big 10 buses )
- Commuters get to see the step by step directions for the entire route including frequency, travel duration for each leg of the trip in text and on the map.
- Commuters can also see the exact route the bus takes as BMTC has painstakingly traced all the bus routes to match the roads on the map.